‘Our Legislature’s overreach’: Boise mayor criticizes lawmakers in annual speech
A woman came up to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean after a dinner in March, worried about her adult child, who had a job but struggled to find housing, McLean recalled during her State of the City speech.
In addition, McLean shared, they “wondered, given the dynamics of the Legislature,” whether their child was welcome.
That anecdote, delivered at the very beginning of her annual remarks, was one of multiple times that McLean criticized the Republican-dominated Idaho Legislature on Wednesday.
Her rebuke came after a session that saw the Legislature and McLean butt heads again, particularly on LGBTQ+ rights. For two years in a row, GOP lawmakers have sought to bring down Boise’s Pride flag, starting with a failed attempt last year, when the city found a loophole in a 2025 law.
Statehouse lawmakers ultimately succeeded in March, when Boise staff took down the flag just minutes after Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a law that prevents cities or counties from flying any official flag established after 2023. The law adds penalties of $2,000 per flag, per day, and allows the attorney general to sue. Governments still may fly flags that are not categorized as religious, political or ideological.
But Boise responded, in part by wrapping flagpoles in the rainbow colors of the flag.
On Wednesday, three pins were available for the buzzing audience, including one with a rainbow heart emblazoned with the words City of Boise. In a short video before her remarks, the camera held briefly on a shot of the “Everyone is Welcome Here” signs hung up by the Downtown Boise Association, in part to support the city amid the Pride flag saga.
“Session after session, our Legislature’s overreach takes away the tools to help deliver on housing, transportation, on the fundamental principle of local control,” said McLean, who told the crowd that the city had to grapple with changing state laws.
The city faced a potential change to state law this year when Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, brought a bill to preempt a city’s nondiscrimination ordinances. McLean said Wednesday that the Legislature “threatened our local nondiscrimination ordinance.”
The bill never got a hearing in the Senate, and McLean thanked local business owners for standing up for the ordinance, drawing applause from the crowd.
Local control has been a point of contention at the Statehouse for years. Lawmakers in the past have taken actions against cities, such as preventing them from setting their own minimum wage and overturning some Boise rental protections.
McLean also focused on other local issues Wednesday, committing $2 million in seed funding for library access in West Boise — though her spokespeople did not respond to a question about what “library access” entailed.
Advocates have pushed for a library in West Boise, but the city’s library director recently warned of “sticker shock” during a presentation on possible price tags for library facilities. Both renting or owning a building would cost tens of millions of dollars, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting.
McLean also announced funding for a pocket park between the Flying Wye and Cole Road.
Regrading public safety, the mayor said Boise police have conducted 55% more traffic stops this year, an increase of 17,000. A 20 mph slow zone in the North End, piloted after an 8-year-old girl was fatally struck by a truck trying to cross Harrison Boulevard, “is working,” McLean said.
That strategy will go to different neighborhoods around the city, she said.
McLean, who was first elected in 2019, is serving her second term in office. She intends to run for a third term, according to her spokesperson, Emilee Ayers.
“We have to fight for the version of this city that calls our kids home,” McLean said, drawing a standing ovation.
